Yesterday, the European Parliament finally adopted, by majority vote, the large majority of the 267 proposed amendments to both the Treaties on the European Union – TEU and the Treaties on the Functioning of the EU – TFEU (291 votes in favour, 274 votes against, 44 abstentions).
Such a vote was obvious because two weeks earlier, when voting on the report containing these proposals in the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament, twenty members of the EPP, Left, Renew (Liberals), the Greens and the Communists were in favor , and only 5 MEPs from the ECR and ID and not affiliated.
There were similar proportions in yesterday’s vote in the plenary hall, although some MEPs from Poland, from the Platform and the PSL, fearing public opinion in our country, voted against, but this is a classic smokescreen.
At this stage, the Polish Members of the European Parliament from the European People’s Party simply received permission from the party’s leadership to temporarily deviate from the party’s line, so as not to disturb Donald Tusk in the process of building a parliamentary majority and, as a result, of a government under his leadership. .
The changes proposed to the Treaties by the rapporteurs of the above-mentioned five political groups that voted “in favor” (one MEP from Belgium and four MEPs from Germany) are indeed far-reaching. As experts say, they will lead to a ‘Copernican revolution’ in the EU, as a result of which the Community of 27 sovereign states will be transformed into a centralized superstate with German-French domination, in which the Member States will have sole control. powers of the federal states (as in Germany).
This includes the transfer of a further two areas to the EU’s exclusive competences: environmental protection and biodiversity (Article 3 TFEU), as well as seven other areas to so-called shared competences, i.e.: foreign and security policy, border protection, forestry, public health, civil defense , industry and education (Article 4 TFEU). The functioning of shared powers in the EU means that in these areas only matters that have not been taken over by the EU institutions remain for the Member State.
Furthermore, the changes would also consist in depriving Member States of the veto right in as many as 63 areas, which would mean that this right would only remain when it comes to admitting new members to the EU (even changes in the subsequent Treaties). reform would not be adopted unanimously, but by 4/5 of the Member States). It should be added that the approved proposals include a provision that the EU currency is the euro, so that all Member States should eventually adopt this currency, and therefore the seven countries currently outside the eurozone should quickly adopt it (Denmark , Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania).
The so-called record The heavy category also includes the EU’s so-called strategic autonomy, which in the longer term would mean that a broadly understood EU defense policy would have to be conducted independently, without the United States.
Following yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament, this report will be submitted in December by Spain, the President of the European Union, to the General Affairs Council of the European Union (European Affairs Ministers), and the latter will, by a simple majority vote, forward this to the level of the European Council (heads of government or state, Member States).
The European Council, in turn, can adopt the so-called Convention to Amend the Treaties (heads of government or state, representatives of national parliaments, the European Parliament and the European Commission) and then we still have a long way to go, which in extreme cases can take several years.
But the European Council may also choose the path set out in Article 48 – Simplified amendment procedures, whereby, in accordance with point 6, the establishment of the said Convention may be omitted and the amendments will be adopted by the European Council and ratified by the European Council. Member States, but if they do not ratify them, there are so-called the second EU circle, without affecting EU decisions or access to EU funds.
Tusk’s avoidance, which he announced last Tuesday at the press conference in the Sejm and which consisted in having the Platform MEPs vote against these changes, is of a tactical nature; later, at the stage of the European Council, as Prime Minister, he will probably agree with them. This is evident, on the one hand, from the voting on these changes by individual EP committees: MPs Sikorski and Cimoszewicz voted in favor in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Olbrycht and Lewandowski in the Budget Committee, Hubner and Belka in the Economic and Economic Committee. Monetary Committee, Frankowski in the Committee on Culture and Education, and the LIBE-Kohut Committee.
On the other hand, however, it is clear that Donald Tusk, who returned to Polish politics, received specific support from the EU establishment (including the political blockade of KPO funds) and as a result has serious obligations that he will now bear . must repay, and the first form of this repayment will be the agreement to a mechanism for the relocation of illegal immigrants, and later also to a deep change of the EU treaties.
Source: wPolityce